SHARE THIS ARTICLE

‘The Zombie Apocalypse Needs You!’

2.8 Hours Later seeks locations for the 2012 round of games

PRESS RELEASE

30 th November 2011

January 1 st 2012 will be the day zombie fans across the UK have been waiting for: dates and locations for the UK-wide tour of the hit zombie chase game, 2.8 Hours Later, will be announced and tickets will go on sale. But this time players will need to do more than just turn up and play; game creators, SlingShot, want their help in bringing the games to life.

Following sellout runs in Bristol, Leeds and, most recently, London, SlingShot, are spreading the zombie love and will be staging their adrenaline-fuelled thrill fest in up to ten towns and cities voted for by the game’s fans. Now they want those same fans to go one step further and suggest which parts of their home towns would make the best locations. It’s all part of the creators’ collaborative approach to the games.

“It’s all about local ownership,” says SlingShot co-founder Simon Evans.“I noticed that when we took the game to Leeds and had people from Sheffield clamouring for it. I thought‘why not jump on a train,’ but it’s not about the distance; people want to see their own familiar towns and cities transformed by the zombie apocalypse. So now we are asking for their help to make that happen.”

Since word first got out about 2.8 Hours Later, following its debut in Bristol last year, prospective players have been bidding for their home towns via the game’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/2.8HoursLater. With now around 7,500 page fans, suggestions are coming thick and fast and a shortlist of destinations on the 2.8 Hours Later website, http://2.8hourslater.com has attracted thousands of votes.

Leading the poll so far are Oxford, Nottingham and Manchester, but SlingShot are also considering Edinburgh, London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle, and fans are still being encouraged to vote for newcomers to the list, Sheffield, Glasgow and Brighton.

Before the final schedule can be announced, each city has to be assessed for its suitability both in terms of red tape and locations, and that’s where fans’ suggestions will play a crucial role. SlingShot are looking for locations that either lend themselves to being part of the inner city backdrop, or are in need of the attention that the game with its cast of players, actors and marauding zombies would bring.

Suggestions on the Facebook page so far range from a bombed out church in Liverpool to Oxford’s Westgate Centre and the Cutty Sark in Greenwich for a possible rerun of the London game.

“What we try to do with the game is to opens up parts of a city you wouldn’t normally get to see, or make you see them in a different light,” says fellow SlingShot Director, Simon Johnson.“When we took the game to Leeds, a lot of the action took place in Holbeck, which isn’t on the radar for a lot of the local population. We’re also looking at the City of London, which is a commercial centre by day, but a ghost town at night. By appropriating part of a city for play, we are challenging people’s relationship with the space they’re in, which is an exciting and powerful thing to do.”

SlingShot are keen to maintain the buzz surrounding the game on social networking sites. They hope that it might also encourage local partners to step forward to help stage the games.

2.8 Hours Later is a night time chase game devised by Bristol game creators, SlingShot. Players race through the streets of a city that has been devastated by a zombie apocalypse. Their aim is to find their way to Resistance HQ, the last safe place in the city. Armed with a map and encountering dazed survivors along the way, they get clues to take them from one secret location to the next to help them on their quest, all the while being chased by marauding zombies.

The game was premiered in 2010 at Bristol’s igfest 3, the world’s largest pervasive games festival, and has since enjoyed a second sellout run in Bristol and outings in Leeds and London.?

SlingShot is an award-winning Bristol-based games developer and consultancy. They offer a range of games including mobile phone apps and social media devices as well as corporate games and bespoke games for specific organisations and cities. For further information on the full range of games they offer go to their website: http://slingshoteffect.co.uk

Igfest is the world’s largest pervasive games festival, which takes place annually in Bristol. http://igfest.org. Pervasive games festivals also take place in New York, San Francisco, London, Berlin, Pittsburgh, Cardiff and Toronto.

igfest is supported by the Arts Council England, Watershed and Bristol City Council.

?

Games Press is the leading online resource for games journalists. Used daily by magazines, newspapers, TV, radio, online media and retailers worldwide, it offers a vast, constantly updated archive of press releases and assets, and is the simplest and most cost-effective way for PR professionals to reach the widest possible audience. Registration for the site and the Games Press email digest is available, to the trade only, at www.gamespress.com